The New Year's resolution is the most laughable of life improvement schemes. When considered from the standpoint of success rate they should obliterate our ability to hope for a better life. And yet, every year millions of people vow to lose weight, work harder, eat healthier, quit vices and generally be better people. In spite of ourselves, we persist.
What so many resolutions seem to lack is that fundamental will to succeed. It's not that those undertaking the resolution don't wish to succeed, rather, they lack the willingness to do stick with their plan when it's hard. After all, a resolution is a rule, passed into being by a majority vote, even if the voting body is only one.
What most resolutionaries lack is a quality the average cyclist has by the boatload: resolve. It gets you up when the bed is warm, the air cold, the legs tired or the will flagging. It helps you persevere during those long efforts when the end is not in sight.
But the new year is also a time of change. It spells the arrival of the bike and perhaps a move to 7900 or 11-speed. It’s time for a new look with the arrival of the new kit. It can mean even larger changes as well.
Many riders will change teams each winter. Dissatisfied with the events of the previous year (or years), some riders will elect a new team, hopeful that new leadership may inspire them to perform to the full extent of their ability. Even more impressive is the way a new director—think back on when Bjarne Riis rebuilt Team Home-Jack & Jones into Team CSC—can rally his riders into a new perspective on what they might achieve, filling the troops with the belief: Yes we can.
Image courtesy Team Saxo Bank.
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1 comment:
Beautifully stated and so very true. Resolutions are usually meaningless pseudo-commitments. Real change happens rarely, but this is the most optimistic I have felt in...about eight years.
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